


Lights Go Down

by fandomsandxfiles



Series: Files From the FBI's Most Unwanted [11]
Category: The X-Files
Genre: F/M, Fluff and Humor, Light Angst, Locked In, Post-Episode: s04e04 Unruhe, Power Outage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-19
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:08:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28170672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fandomsandxfiles/pseuds/fandomsandxfiles
Summary: Late evenings in the basement office are nothing new for Mulder, especially after tough cases. But an unfortunate series of events one day leaves him and Scully trapped down there through the night; and to make matters worse, a storm has knocked out the power.
Relationships: Fox Mulder/Dana Scully
Series: Files From the FBI's Most Unwanted [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2020487
Comments: 4
Kudos: 42
Collections: X-Files Secret Santa Fanfic Exchange (2020)





	Lights Go Down

**Author's Note:**

  * For [OnlyTheInevitable](https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnlyTheInevitable/gifts).



> I hope you enjoy this! I had a lot of fun with the prompt :)

The sun had long since gone down, and the only light in the office was the weak lamp on his desk, but Mulder didn't seem to realize. He was finishing a report for Skinner that was due the next day, from a case that him and Scully had wrapped up a few days before. Scully had finished her report right away, but Mulder needed more time. It was a tough case, because not only had the killer kidnapped two young women while they were tracking him, but he had taken Scully hostage as well, and Mulder had only caught up to them in the nick of time. If he had been any later, Scully would have been another one of his victims, and the unwilling recipient of another botched lobotomy. She was fine now, thank god, but it was too close of a call for him to easily brush off. He barely noticed the rain start to come down harder against the building as he tried to piece together his report. 

He had asked her how she was doing several times, and each time she insisted that she was fine, that she just needed to stop thinking about it and work on something else. But he could see that she wasn't telling the truth and the experience had troubled her, but she wouldn't tell him why. 

He was so wrapped up in what he was doing that he didn't hear Scully come in, the door swinging to a close behind her. "Mulder, what are you doing?" she asked. "You said you weren't feeling well today, so why are you still here?" 

"I have to get this report done for Skinner," he said. "How did you know I was still here?" 

"I called your apartment phone three times and no one picked up. You weren't answering your cell either, so I figured you were here. I brought you something to eat," she said, placing a paper bag on the desk in front of him. 

"You didn't have to do that," he said. 

"Mulder you cancelled dinner, you've been distant for the past few days, and this morning you were asleep at your desk when I came in. Are you sure you're okay?" 

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" 

She gave him a patronizing look. "Mulder-" 

"I'm fine Scully."

"I don't believe you," she said. "I'm sure Skinner will understand if you turn that report in a day late." 

"Scully-" he started to say, but she silenced him with a look. "Fine," he said after a few moments. "But _you_ have to explain to Skinner why I don't have my report tomorrow when we meet with him." 

"Deal," Scully said. "On one condition." 

"What?"

"I accidentally locked my keys and phone in my car when I got here. I need you to drive me back to my apartment to get my spare key. I'll take the train to work tomorrow, and I'll be able to drive back in the evening."

Mulder agreed, and soon he had packed up what he was doing under Scully's watchful eye. But it soon turned out that him potentially sneaking case files home with him was not the biggest problem she would have to deal with that evening, because when she went to grab the door handle to let them out, it wouldn't budge. She jiggled the knob, hoping that it was just a small jam and that it would soon swing open, but to no avail. Scully cursed under her breath. That door had been giving them trouble recently, and she was willing to bet that it was because it hadn't been replaced (or paid attention to) since the building was built. It was on the growing list of things that they were going to talk to A.D. Skinner about, if they ever actually made it to that scheduled meeting. 

"Mulder I think the door is stuck," she said, still trying to work the handle open. 

"Try kicking the bottom," he said. "Sometimes the lock jams and that helps dislodge it." 

Scully raised her eyebrows at him, but kicked the bottom of the door anyway. Nothing. Mulder tried too, but it still wouldn't budge. He tried moving the lock back and forth on the handle, but that didn't work either. And the door locked from the inside, so it wasn't like a key would do them any good. Someone would have to unlock the door from the outside to get them out, and no one was left in the office. They were stuck. 

"I think we're locked in here Scully," he said, turning back to look at her.

"What time is it?' she asked. "Because if there's anyone left in the building we could call up and ask someone to open the door." 

Mulder checked his watch. "It's almost midnight," he said. "The janitors are normally the last ones in the building, but they leave at eleven. The first people don't normally arrive until about six or seven in the morning."

"I'm afraid to ask how you know that." 

Mulder opened his mouth, but he didn't even get a chance to respond, because to make things worse, the lights went out. It was pitch black in the basement office, and the stormy weather was blocking any moonlight that could have come through the windows. Through the darkness, he heard Scully's voice. She was still right next to him. "And now we can't even call someone. Unless you have your cell phone, because mine's locked in my car." 

Mulder shook his head. "It looks like we're stuck." 

***

They waited for their eyes to adjust to the darkness, but even that really didn't help that much. Mulder stubbed his toe on his desk looking for a flashlight, and Scully knocked over a stack of books. It was both a blessing and a curse that their office was also being used for random storage: because there were definitely some flashlights for them, they just had to sort through a lot of junk in order to find them. A few minutes (and some sweari ng) later, they had three flashlights on and stood them up on the ground so they could see everything better. The light bounced off the stacks of files on the desks, the newspaper clippings and photographs that covered the walls, and the piles of who-knows-what that had started to accumulate next to the file cabinets. "So, what do we do now?" Mulder asked, raising his eyebrows. "Because I think we'll be here for a while." 

"You really don't know where your cell phone is?" Scully asked. 

Mulder shook his head. "I can try to break down the door if you'd like." 

"I'd rather not do the paperwork for that, if you don't mind," she said. "Hopefully the power will go back on soon, so at least if we're stuck here until morning, we'll be able to see." 

They searched around for anything else that might be useful in the dim light they had. Mulder managed to find some dusty sleeping bags that were wedged behind a pile of other junk, and he laid them out next to each other on the floor. There weren't any blankets, but Mulder always kept a few pillows stashed in the office, because he slept here more than he would like to admit. Scully raised her eyebrows at him as he pushed his desk aside to make a little more room, but he only smiled and gestured to the floor. "Scully, welcome to the worst sleepover ever," he said, plopping down on one of the sleeping bags. "Come on, we can tell scary stories." 

"You can't be serious," she said. 

"We might as well make the most of this," he said, smiling. "Even if it is my fault that we're stuck here instead of at home." 

"Mulder you never answered my question," Scully said quietly, sitting down on the other sleeping bag. "Why are you here so late?" 

"I just lost track of time," he said nonchalantly. "Let's-" 

Scully didn't believe that for a second. "Mulder," she said, cutting him off. "I know you, and I know something's wrong. So out with it." 

He was silent for a few moments before letting out a heaving sigh. "Fine," he said. "I was stuck on that report. I've been staring at a blank page for hours, but I can't bring myself to do anything about it. This case was too close, Scully." 

"If you're suggesting that I don't go on cases with you anymore-" she started to say, turning her head to look at him.

"Scully, you almost died," he said quietly. "I could never live with myself if something happened to you because I wasn't quick enough." 

"Mulder, bad things are going to happen, no matter what we do," she said. "I can't leave you to suffer through them alone." 

"You have had so much misery because of me, and you didn't deserve any of it. I just don't want to lose you."

She reached her hand out to grasp his. "You won't." 

***

So they sat, quietly looking at each other in the light of the flashlights for a few more minutes after that, the tension palpable in the dark room, and it was Mulder's stomach growling that broke the silence. Scully looked at him, trying not to laugh. "You said you brought me dinner?" he said, slightly embarrassed. 

"It should be on the desk," she said, trying not to laugh. "It's just a sandwich that I picked up from the restaurant a block away." 

He got up from the floor and grabbed the paper bag that had been discarded on his desk (when the door being jammed was the biggest of their problems). He peeked in the bag and dropped it on the floor next to his sleeping bag before making his way over to one of the filing cabinets. Using one of the flashlights, he started to rifle through it. "A-ha!" he said, pulling something out. 

"Mulder?" Scully asked, not sure what he had been looking for. "What's that?" 

"Potato chips," he said matter-of-factly as he settled back down on the floor. "You want some?" 

"What are you, a squirrel? Keeping stashes of food hidden all over the office?" 

"It came in handy now, didn't it?" Mulder asked, shaking the bag before opening it. "Do you want some or not?" 

Scully rolled her eyes, but grabbed a few potato chips from the bag he was holding out to her. Mulder offered her half of his sandwich, but she declined that, saying that she had already eaten. "I'm fine Mulder, I promise." 

"Are you sure? It might be a long night." 

"Well I was hoping to get some sleep at least," Scully said. "We do have work tomorrow." 

"If the power comes back on by then."

"I don't even want to imagine that it doesn't."

"Let's hope it does," Mulder said. "So we're not stuck here any longer than we have to be." 

"Exactly," she said, getting up and taking a flashlight from its spot on the floor. She walked deeper into the office and started to search around again. "Do you think we have any blankets down here?" 

"I didn't see any, but we might," he said. "Hang on, I'll help you look." 

So they searched again. Scully found one blanket, but that was it. "Did you find anything?" she asked looking back over at him. 

He didn't answer right away, but eventually let out a laugh. "Not another blanket if that's what you're after Scully," he said. "But I found us something fun to do." 

"Something fun?" she asked. "It's like 2 in the morning, don't you want to go to sleep?" 

"You know me, of course not," he said as he moved both sleeping bags closer to each other and right up against his desk. There was now a large bowl on the floor in the middle of the office. 

"Mulder, what on earth are you doing?" 

"I know I've got some quarters in my desk," he said, not answering the question. "Or we can just use pencils."

" _Mulder_ ," Scully repeated. "Did you hear me?" 

"Come one, play against me."

"Play what? Aren't you tired?" 

"No, I'm not tired." There was a short silence. "So, you playing? Or am I going to have to throw these pencils into that bowl all by myself and look like an idiot?" 

Scully let out a heaving sigh. She clearly wasn't going to get any sleep tonight. "Fine," she said. "What are the rules?"

"Whoever gets the most pencils in the bowl wins, and the loser buys lunch the next time we decide to go out." 

She rolled her eyes, but sat down next to him on the floor, laying the blanket she had found so that it covered both of their laps. He handed her a few pencils, and they took turns trying to toss them into the bowl. After a while, neither of them had missed. "I think this is too easy," she said. "Even in the dark."

"I think so too," he said, getting up to retrieve the pencils. After placing the bowl as far away from the two of them as he could, he sat down again. She offered him some of the blanket, and soon they were laughing together on the floor of the office, tossing pencils across the room and trying to get them into the bowl. 

"I win!" She exclaimed after a while.

"How?" 

"I landed that last one, and that's one more than you!"

"You cheated!" 

"I most certainly did not!" 

"I saw you!" 

"How can you see anything in this light?"

"Don't be such a smartass Scully," he said, rolling his eyes. "We need to play another round because you so obviously cheated."

"Fine, but you're getting up to get the pencils." 

***

Scully ended up falling asleep shortly after they had a rematch (which she still won, thank you very much), and she woke up hours later to see the sunlight streaming in through the window. Her head was resting on Mulder's shoulder, and he was fast asleep as well, snoring quietly against the desk. She didn't even have time to register the crick in her neck before the phone started ringing. 

_The phone started ringing._ She had barely noticed, but the power was on! She jumped up to grab the phone, hoping that it was someone that could let them out. "Scully," she answered.

"Agent Scully it's A.D. Skinner," he said. "Is Agent Mulder down there with you? I thought we had a meeting." 

"I'm really sorry sir," Scully said. "But Agent Mulder and I are locked in our office right now. The door jammed last night, but then the power went out so we couldn't even call for help." 

Skinner sighed on the other end of the line. "Alright, I'll come down and open the door for you," he said, and Scully could have jumped for joy. 

"Thank you sir." 

Mulder hadn't woken up when Scully hung up the phone, and he still hadn't woken up when the door to the office finally opened to reveal A.D. Skinner. He took one look at Scully, who was standing in the middle of the office with a sheepish look on her face, then he turned to Mulder, who was still fast asleep with his head against the side of his desk (he was used to sleeping on that ratty old couch of his, so the floor probably wasn't that different to him). Finally, his eyes rested on the pencils littering the floor from their game last night, and sighed again. "Go home," he finally said. 

"Are you sure?" Scully asked. "We had a meeting-" 

"I can reschedule the meeting. Go home Agent Scully, I mean it." 

Scully nodded and Skinner left the office, careful not to let the door close behind him. Scully had started to gather her things and straighten the office a little bit when Mulder stirred awake. "Scully?" he asked. "What's going on?" 

"The power is back on and Skinner came down to open the door for us," she told him. "We missed our meeting with him, but he said we can reschedule. We have orders to go home." 

Mulder must have been really tired, because he didn't even try to argue. "Fine," he said. "I still have to drop you off at home right? Because you locked your keys in the car?" 

"Yeah," she said. "I have a spare key for my apartment hidden under the mat, and I know where my spare car key is." 

"Tell you what," he said. "We'll get your keys, then we go and get a late breakfast somewhere. To celebrate actually getting out of there alive." 

Scully rolled her eyes at him, but nodded. "Fine, but you're paying." 

"And why is that?" 

"Because you lost last night." 

"Because you cheated!" 

"I still won the rematch!" 

The two of them argued all the way to Mulder's car. He eventually gave in, because he knew there was no way to win this one. If he was being completely honest, he didn't really mind, because it meant he got to spend more time with her. 

_\- the end -_


End file.
